The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-30
A STAGE COACH ADVENTURE.
Robbed of Every Cent, But by the
Drop of Two Rocks the Money is Re-
covered
From the NelC York sun.

There were five men of us in one of the
old Mariposa stage coaches before the days
of the railroad, and it was 5 o'clock i'll the
afternoon on an August day. We were on
our way to Stockton, and of the passengers
one was Lieutenant in the regular army,
another a tourist in search of health a third
a ranchmar, and the other two were pros
pectors and miners. None of lis had met
each other previous to the start. Those
were pefilous times, and the first half hour
was spent in sizing each other up. | don't
know to what conclusion the others came,
but / looked over the four men and said to
myself:
The Lieutenant ought to fight in case we
are attacked, but he seems too nervous to be
gamey. The tourist is i'll, and has no sand,
but the ranchman and prospector can be
depended on"
At that time the coach which was not
stopped twice out of five trips was consid-
cred very luckyl ATn some few instances the
robbers were driven off but in most cases
the passengers submitted to being "held
up,n and were Slad to get off with nothing
worse. | had with me over $4,000 in bank
bills and gold, and | was determined not to
part with that money without fight. The
ranchman had $4,000 and the miner about
$1,000, as was afterward learned, and both
had determined to fight. We had just
forged the MERGED river and had come to
lonely stretch of road, when the ranchman
pulled his revolver and examined the caps.
1t was not yet restored to the holster when
we heard a shout, the report of pistol, and
the stage came to a full stop. | reached for
my pistol, as did the miner, knowing that
robbers were at hand, but before mine was
out the Lieutenant flung his arms around
me and cried out:
"For Gods sake make no move or we
shall all be murdered! Let them take all
we have!"
At the same time the tourist flung him
self upon the miner, and neither of US had
weapon out when a robber showed himself
at either door. The ranchman was ready,
however and he killed the man on his side.
He would have also KILLED the other, but
his revolver failed on the second shot, and
the robber pushed his revolver in and fired
with the muZZle pressed against the poor
fellows heart. A third robber then came
up, and we were covered from either door
and called upon to surrender. The jig was
up, and we climbed out, delivering our pis-
tolls butt foremost as we left the stage
There were four of us and only two robbers,
but when man has the drop on you and
means business it's no use to kick. We were
placed in a row, and while one of the fell
lows kept us covered the other went through
out a watch and $40 the tourist watch
and $400, and they got from the other two
of us the sums l have previously named.
/ had my bank bills in my bootlegs, but as
we were forced to strip to our shirts, they
found every last dollar. While we were
dressing, the body of the ranchman was
pulled from the coach and stripped and
robbed.
have no doubt that the robbers meant
to shoot every one of us after securing the
plumber in order to avenge the death of
their comrade, but the unsuually large
booty put them in good spirits, and they
underwent change of heart. The one who
searched us stepped over the body dozen
times without seeming to care whether it
was log or a man. When finally through
with us he bent over the body and began
robbing it, saying to his companion:
"Bill won't have any more use for money,
and we might as well take his dollars along.
Poor Bill We shan't never play poker to-
gether again"
When they were ready to go they cut the
harness so that the stage would be detained
a couple of hours, broke up or carried off
every firearrn, and drank to our health
from flask the tourist had with him. They
made off for the foothills to the east, hav-
ing so little care for us that neither of them
once looked back. | was mad and no mis-
take. and the miner gave utterance to his
feelings in curses which almost cracked the
stones around us. We had been robbed of
our every dollar and, with the money, our
every prospect. The tourist could get more
at Stockton, and the Lieutenant was out
only a few dollars anyway. was not yet
dressed when he began to put on airs over
us, claiming that if we had not been so
hasty, he would have managed the affair to
the defeat of the robbers. This added to
my anger, and sailed in and pounded him
until he yelled for mercy.
1t was Just sunset when the stage was
ready to go on but there were two of us
who did not propose to go that way. We
were unarmed, but determined, and while
the stage numbered off down the rough road
we found club apiece and set out on the
trail of the robbers. Luckily for us, the
miner had been long in the country sand
seen good deal of the hunters life. We
therefore had no difficulty in following the
trail until darkness came on. The fellows
made directly for the foothills, and we had
no doubt that they had some sort of a cave
or stronghold out there. They took mat
ters so coolly that they could not have been
a great ways ahead of us when darkness
fell. l was then for resting until daylight
but the miner urged that we should push
on. From the topography of the country
he felt certain that ravine or rift would be
found not far away We were then be-
in a narrow valley, and a full moon had
come up. Without this light we could not
have made our way, as the ground was
much broken and boulders lay thickly' scat
tered about
We went ahead very cautiously up this
valley for about a mile, and of sudden a
rift opened TO the left, and the glare of a
camp fire greeted our eyes. 1t was not over
200 feet away, and after a minute we made
out the forms of the two men as they
seemed 10 be preparing supper. We had
found them, but what of itl They had all
the arms and we were defenceless We crept
back few yards TO hold consultation, and
the miner carefully studied the lay of the
land. He was of the opinion that it was
short, dry rift, with cave at the far end
Three sides were enclosed by walls of earth
and rock, and our only way was to attack
the men from above. How high we would
have to climb, or what the difficulties, we
could not say. We were not three minutes
deciding to make the attempt, and